Expertise from across the globe to boost BRI
The impetus behind a revival of the ancient Silk Road connecting East and West in the 21st century was always more than just trade. When President Xi Jinping proposed the initiative during a speech in Kazakhstan in 2013, he spoke also of the benefits of cooperation between people of different races, beliefs and cultural backgrounds in pursuit of peaceful development.
In a little more than half a decade, the original idea has blossomed into the Belt and Road Initiative that links 125 countries and around 4.4 billion of the world's population.
On sites from Central Asia to Africa to the Greek port of Piraeus, the spectacle of Chinese engineers and technicians working alongside their local counterparts has become commonplace. The BRI has accelerated this process by providing jobs along the Belt and Road routes for tens of thousands of local people in Chinese financed and operated projects.
